INVESTIGATE@SVD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Imaging NeuroVascular, Endothelial and STructural Integrity in prepAration to TrEat Small Vessel Diseases
IRAS ID
208459
Contact name
Joanna Wardlaw
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Edinburgh
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN10514229
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
In a country the size of the United Kingdom (UK) with 60 million inhabitants, there are about 35,000 people each year who have a type of stroke, called ‘lacunar’ or ‘small vessel’ stroke. ‘Small vessel disease’ also causes or worsens many cases of dementia (about 350,000 patients in the UK at present). There is no proven treatment for small vessel disease. We think that small vessel disease is caused by damage to the lining of the tiny blood vessels in the brain that stops the vessels functioning normally and damages the brain. We are working with other doctors and scientists in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Denmark with funding from the European Union, to try to understand what goes wrong with the small blood vessels so that we can find treatments.
This study, INVESTIGATE@SVDs, is a short clinical study including 25 patients from Edinburgh and a further 50 patients in parallel studies using a similar protocol in two other centres, Maastricht and Munich, to find out about the function of the small brain blood vessels (leakiness, ability to increase blood flow when needed) using detailed magnetic resonance brain scanning. We are also measuring blood pressure for a week using a mobile blood pressure cuff worn on the arm, and the stiffness of the blood vessels using a small camera at the same visit as for the brain scan, so as to understand how blood pressure affects vessel stiffness and function in the brain. We hope to use these methods in a future clinical trial to see if possible treatments can improve blood vessel function.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
16/SS/0123
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion